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VANCOUVER PREMIERE // VANCITY THEARE EXCLUSIVE
As Euro 2008 reaches its exciting conclusion, one wonders how the French would have performed with their famous man in the middle, Zinadine Zidane, bulldozing his way through Europe.
Art stars Douglas Gordon and Philippe Pareno are among the many football fans who became fascinated with the Algerian-born Zidane, former captain of the French national squad, during his revolutionary career. Their remarkable film—shot before the headbutt heard around the world—places viewers right in the action, as no less than 17 cameras (both film and video, supervised by Darius Khondji) track Zidane’s every move and glance one day in April 2005, when Zidane’s Real Madrid club battled Spanish La Liga opponent Villareal.
The lone, elegant and intensely focused figure of Zidane is set against the roar of 80,000 spectators in attendance. We study Zidane's face, movements, and extraordinary poise, from the first kick of the ball to when he leaves the field at the end of the match, presciently red-carded. Anger, regret and joy movingly leak out of Zidane's impassive face as he is simultaneously observed from all sides.
Filming something in between an art installation and a sports documentary, Gordon and Parreno have reimagined the experience of a complete football match as a study in time and motion of one sweaty, concentrated figure, his movements seemingly choreographed to the drone of a score by the Scottish band Mogwai. According to Gordon, it’s “a portrait of an anti-hero,” though many football fans would somewhat disagree.
Directors
Philippe Parreno
Philippe Parreno, based in Paris, makes work that revolves around the interrogation of the nature of an image as well as the modes of its exhibition. He often draws on already existing material and enriches it with his own, mostly narrative ideas. He has recently had major shows a at the Muse d'Art Moderne de la Ville de Paris, the Museum of Modern Art in San Francisco and the Kunstverein Munich. He is a regular contributor to Domus magazine and writes for many other art magazines. His work is part of the major collections of the New York Museum of Modern Art, the Walker Art Center, the Centre Georges Pompidou, the Paris Museum of Modern Art, the New York Guggenheim Museum and the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art
Douglas Gordon
The work of Douglas Gordon, born in Glasgow, epitomises a new fluidity which has developed between video and film in contemporary art. Douglas Gordon was awarded the Turner Prize in London, the Premio at the Venice Biennale in and the Hugo Boss Prize in New York. He has recently had major shows at the Muse d'Art Moderne, the Tate Liverpool and the Museum of Contemporary Art in Los Angeles. His work is in the major collections of the Tate Gallery, the Centre Georges Pompidou France, the New York Guggenheim Museum and the Hirschorn Smithsonian Museum in Washington D.C.
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